Everyone except this dumb-ass administration knows that North Korea is the crazy uncle in Grandma’s basement that you don’t bother because he’s unstable. You just leave his plate at the top of the stairs and shut the door.
But no, not President Vladimir TrumPutin. Because he believes that being president is akin to being Chuck Norris in an action movie—being president means looking and sounding tough. President TrumPutin’s recent budget proposal includes massive cuts to the poor and the arts while increasing defense spending some $54 billion.
Now Rex Tillerson, on his first official visit to Asia as secretary of state, is out here threatening to make crazy uncle North Korea come upstairs to get his plate, and you know it doesn’t take much for him to go nuclear.
On Friday, Tillerson warned North Korea that military action is “on the table.”
“If they elevate the threat of their weapons program to a level that we believe requires action, then that option is on the table,” he told a press conference in South Korea, according to NBC News.
“Certainly we do not want for things to get to a military conflict,” he added. “But obviously if North Korea takes actions that threaten the South Korean forces or our own forces, then that would be met with an appropriate response.”
It isn’t as if North Korea hasn’t been reckless. In January the country carried out two nuclear tests and noted that it was ready to test-fire an intercontinental ballistic missile “at any time, at any place,” NBC News reports.
“Let me be very clear—the policy of strategic patience has ended,” Tillerson said Friday. “We are exploring a new range of security and diplomatic measures. All options are on the table.”
Tillerson did note that military action wasn’t the first decision.
“We have many, many steps we can take before we get to” military action, and “we hope that that will persuade North Korea to take a different course of action. That’s our desire,” he said.
Read more at NBC News.